Radioactive water floods Fukushima buildings
Anti-nuclear activists demonstrate on March 17 in Barcelona, Spain in reaction to the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. The debate over nuclear safety has reignited worldwide, as workers in Fukushima desperately seek to prevent a nuclear meltdown.
Radioactive groundwater is pouring into the buildings of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant at the rate of 75 gallons a minute, the New York Times reported. Worse, the flooding is not new. It's been a constant headache since the nuclear disaster two years ago, forcing a small army of workers to continuously struggle to contain the endless flow of water.
“The water keeps increasing every minute, no matter whether we eat, sleep or work,” Masayuki Ono, a general manager with the Tokyo Electric Power Company, told the Times. “It feels like we are constantly being chased, but we are doing our best to stay a step in front.”
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According to the Times, the workers use massive tanks sprawling over 42 acres to hold the water, and even that isn't enough.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Ono's description of the tanks was not exactly reassuring: "We admit that the underground tanks are not reliable. But we must keep using some of them that are relatively in good shape while monitoring them closely."
Earlier this month, TEPCO admitted that one of those holding tanks may have leaked up to 120 tons of contaminated water.